PRESENTATION: MAR's Top 100 Films of the 1980s [COMPLETED!]

Awards: Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival; BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Trivia: In the closing titles it says: "Dedicated to all the former angels, but especially to Yasujiro, François and Andrej." This refers to film directors Yasujirô Ozu, François Truffaut, and Andrei Tarkovsky. All were favorites of director Wim Wenders. At the time of filming Wings of Desire, Truffaut and Tarkovsky had only recently passed away, in 1984 and 1986. Ozu died in 1963.

A romantic fantasy film from Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire follows Damiel (Bruno Ganz) who is one of many immortal and invisible angels overseeing everyday human life in Berlin. Listening to people’s innermost thoughts and worries, Damiel begins to long for the full human experience after falling in love with a lonely trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin). Similar to Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death, both color and black-and-white are well utilized to differentiate heaven and earth, with Wings of Desire having especially memorable sepia-soaked cinematography from Henri Alekan. Co-starring Peter Falk, Otto Sander and Curt Bois, this is a beautiful and tender story about isolation, loneliness and the human connection that has never felt more relatable.

Awards: Special Blue Ribbon Award for Hayao Miyazaki.

Trivia: The forest creatures and title characters of this movie got their name when Mei, the little girl who first sees them in the film, mispronounces the word "troll". At one point in the original Japanese language version, when Satsuki first finds Mei sleeping in the grove behind their house, Mei tells her sister she saw a "totoro". Satsuki replies, "Totoro, do you mean troll, from the storybook?" and Mei nods in agreement. This aspect of the story was left out of the 1993 Fox English version, probably because the difference between ""to-ro-ru" (the Japanese pronunciation of "troll") and "to-to-ro" would have been lost on English-speaking audiences. The quote is included in the 2006 Disney English version. .

It is easy to get lost in the imagination and play of My Neighbor Totoro. It is a bottomless box of delights, a land of make-believe that is always vibrant and charged with wonder. It isn't especially imaginative in a visual sense - there are no amazing airships to gasp at here (which in Miyazaki's world shows a level of restraint comparable with fasting for a week) - but it captures the play of children creating a world out of their environment like no other. Brambles form tunnels that house rotund, fuzzy creatures, while a purring, giant cat transports people at a bus stop. It's a joyful mix of oddity that looks like it came out of a child's coloring book.

This simulation of childhood play would have been diverting, but it is underneath that layer that My Neighbor Totoro is at its strongest. For it is that rarest of things: a story aimed at young children that never speaks down to them. It engages with the imagination, but is also conscious of the terrors that surround its two young protagonists. Like Mr. Rogers speaking to his audience about the scary things happening in the world, Miyazaki looks at the very real fears of Satsuki and Mei from eye-level, showing how shattering the fears of abandonment or getting lost can be. It is this balance of the joyous with the scary that makes Totoro into such a beloved gem: a portrait of comfort and fear, warmth and cold, laughter and sorrow.

Awards: Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Trivia: According to an interview with Vincent D'Onofrio, the production schedule for the film was so drawn-out that lead actor Matthew Modine got married, conceived a child with his wife, the child was born, and then turned 1 year old...all during the course of filming.

Stanley Kubrick’s delve into taking on a Vietnam film is nothing short of remarkable. Full Metal Jacket is divided by two distinct halves, each with their own brilliance and overall message. The first half, which is contained in the boot camp of new recruits, consists of the films most memorable sequences. This is largely due to two outstanding supporting actor performances. Vincent D’Onofrio as the overweight and slow-witted Pvt Pyle, and R. Lee Emery as the ill-tempered and colorful languages Drill Sgt (due in large part to his real life experience). Kubrick ultimately shows the effect of war on soldiers from enrollment through fierce combat.